Distributed-user shipping system

• US 8,438,083 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: United Parcel Service Of America Incorporated (United Parcel Service Incorporated)
• Inventors: Turbeville, Dan, Gittings, Dave, Cornelius, John, Jones, Bob
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEIKH, ASFAND M
• Application Number:
  US13/182,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20110276510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 663 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system and method is described for controlling user access to a carrier'"'"'s shipping services for delivery of a package. The system controls the user'"'"'s access to the carrier'"'"'s services by either limiting the selection of locations from which a package can be shipped to fewer than those described by the carrier'"'"'s service area, or by limiting the user'"'"'s ability to select shipping service levels to fewer than those provided by the carrier. Such limitation may be by way of displaying only a limited collection of ship from locations and service levels, or by pre-populating and locking ship from information submission fields on a web page. The distributed-user shipping system may reside on a client server or mobile computer that is connected to the carrier'"'"'s server and transmits various shipping location information and service level selections to the carrier to facilitate shipping of packages while controlling the scope of shipping services provided.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a user'"'"'s access to a carrier'"'"'s shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier having a service area with a plurality of access locations at which the carrier is willing to receive the package to initiate shipping, said method comprising:

identifying the user;

identifying a user group of an organization, wherein the user is a member of the user group and the organization;

identifying a limited collection of access locations within the organization, wherein the limited collection of access locations are accessible by the carrier to deliver or receive one or more packages and the limited collection of access locations comprises fewer locations than the plurality of access locations accessible by the carrier within the service area;

causing display of at least a subset of the limited collection of access locations;

recording ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;

recording ship from information describing one of the limited collection of access locations selected by the user;

validating that the access location selected by the user is one of the limited collection of access locations,

wherein identifying the limited collection of access locations comprises evaluating one or more rights assigned to the user, the rights being associated with data indicating whether the user is permitted to utilize the limited collection of access locations to deliver or receive the packages;

providing a plurality of different shipping service levels provided by the carrier, each of the service levels comprising data indicating a different mode of shipping the package; and

identifying, via a computing device, a limited collection of shipping service levels, the limited collection of shipping service levels being a subset of the shipping service levels provided by the carrier, and

wherein identifying the limited collection of shipping service levels comprises evaluating the data associated with at least one of the rights assigned to the user, the at least one right comprising information indicating whether the user is permitted to utilize one or more of the subset of the shipping service levels to facilitate delivery of the package.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the ship from and ship to information to the carrier over a network after successfully validating the access location so as to facilitate delivery of the package from the selected access location to the destination location by the carrier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the limited collection of access locations is associated with a work group of the user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein causing display of at least a portion of the limited collection of access locations includes pre-populating a plurality of ship from information fields with portions of a single access location, said information fields used for recording ship from information.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

locking the ship from information fields against modification of the portions of the single access location after pre-populating the ship from information fields.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the single access location is associated with a work group of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a shipping label image based on the ship to and ship from information, said shipping label image usable by the user to print a shipping label for attachment to the package.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing display of the limited collection of shipping service levels available to the user; and

recording a shipping service level selection by the user and transmitting the shipping service level selection, the ship from information and the ship to information over a network to the carrier after successfully validating the access location and the selected shipping service level so as to facilitate delivery of the package.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the shipping service levels provided by the carrier are at least ground and air shipping and wherein the displayed collection of shipping service levels is limited to ground shipping.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

validating the user'"'"'s ability to request the shipping service level by confirming that the user belongs to the group.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a limited collection of destination locations associated with the user group, wherein the limited collection of destination locations comprises fewer locations than a plurality of destination locations accessible by the carrier within the service area.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

recording billing information from the user and causing transmission of the ship to information, ship from information and the billing information over a network to the carrier after successfully validating the selected access location so as to facilitate billing by the carrier for delivery of the package.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the billing information comprises client and matter information.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the access location selected by the user comprises a work location of the user.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the access location selected by the user is associated with a department of the organization and the user is a member of the department.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating the data associated with the rights; and

identifying one or more of the limited collection of access locations that the user is permitted to select to deliver or receive the packages via the one or more access locations.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein validating comprises verifying the user'"'"'s ability to select the access location by confirming that the user belongs to the user group.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the limited location of access locations are accessible by the carrier to receive one or more packages.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the limited location of access locations are accessible by the carrier to receive one or more packages.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating display of at least a portion of the limited collection of shipping service levels; and

facilitating receipt of a selection of at least one of the limited collection of shipping service levels; and

wherein the selected service level identifies a manner in which to transport the package to a delivery location within a predetermined time period.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the display is free from showing service levels, that the user is unauthorized to utilize for shipping the package, the method further comprising:

determining unauthorized service levels based on analyzing the information of the at least one right.

22. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

validating that the selected shipping service level is one of the limited collection of shipping service levels; and

verifying that the user is authorized to utilize the selected shipping service level to ship at least one of the packages based on evaluating the data associated with the at least one right of the user.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the user is only able to utilize at least one of the limited collection of shipping service levels to facilitate delivery of the package to a destination based at least in part on the information of the at least one right.

24. A system for controlling a user'"'"'s access to a carrier'"'"'s shipping services for delivery of a package, said carrier having a service area describing a plurality of access locations at which the carrier is willing to access the package to initiate shipping, the system comprises:

at least one apparatus comprising at least one memory, the memory storing an application executable by the apparatus, wherein the application is configured upon execution, to;

identify the user;

identify a user group of an organization, wherein the user is a member of the user group and the organization;

identify a limited collection of access locations within the organization, wherein the limited collection of access locations are accessible by the carrier to deliver or receive one or more packages and the limited collection of access locations comprises fewer locations than the plurality of access locations accessible by the carrier within the service area;

cause display of at least a subset of the limited collection of access locations;

record ship to information submitted by the user, said ship to information describing a destination location to which the package is to be delivered by the carrier;

record ship from information describing one of the limited collection of access locations selected by the user;

validate that the access location selected by the user is one of the limited collection of access locations;

identify the limited collection of access locations comprises evaluating one or more rights assigned to the user, the rights being associated with data indicating whether the user is permitted to utilize the limited collection of access locations to deliver or receive the packages;

provide a plurality of different shipping service levels provided by the carrier, each of the service levels comprising data indicating a different mode of shipping the package;

identify a limited collection of shipping service levels, the limited collection of shipping service levels being a subset of the shipping service levels provided by the carrier, and

identify the limited collection of shipping service levels comprises evaluating the data associated with at least one of the rights assigned to the user, the at least one right comprising information indicating whether the user is permitted to utilize one or more of the subset of the shipping service levels to facilitate delivery of the package.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

cause transmission of the ship from and ship to information to the carrier over a network after successfully validating the access location so as to facilitate delivery of the package from the selected access location to the destination location by the carrier.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein each of the limited collection of access locations is associated with a work group of the user.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein cause display of at least a portion of the limited collection of access locations includes pre-populating a plurality of ship from information fields with portions of a single access location, said information fields used for recording ship from information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

facilitate locking of the ship from information fields against modification of the portions of the single access location after pre-populating the ship from information fields.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the single access location is associated with a work group of the user.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

generate a shipping label image based on the ship to and ship from information, said shipping label image usable by the user to print a shipping label for attachment to the package.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

cause display of the limited collection of shipping service levels available to the use; and

record a shipping service level selection by the user and transmitting the shipping service level selection, the ship from information and the ship to information over a network to the carrier after successfully validating the access location and the selected shipping service level so as to facilitate delivery of the package.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the shipping service levels provided by the carrier are at least ground and air shipping and wherein the displayed collection of shipping service levels is limited to ground shipping.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the application is further configured to upon execution, to:

validate the user'"'"'s ability to request the shipping service level by confirming that the user belongs to the group.

34. The system of claim 24, wherein application is further configured upon execution, to:

identify a limited collection of destination locations associated with the user group, wherein the limited collection of destination locations comprises fewer locations than a plurality of destination locations accessible by the carrier within the service area.

35. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

record billing information from the user and causing transmission of the ship to information, ship from information and the billing information over a network to the carrier after successfully validating the selected access location so as to facilitate billing by the carrier for delivery of the package.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein the billing information comprises client and matter information.

37. The system of claim 24, wherein the access location selected by the user comprises a work location of the user.

38. The system of claim 24, wherein the access location selected by the user is associated with a department of the organization and the user is a member of the department.

39. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

evaluate the data associated with the rights; and

identify one or more of the limited collection of access locations that the user is permitted to select to deliver or receive the packages via the one or more access locations.

40. The system of claim 24, wherein validate comprises verifying the user'"'"'s ability to select the access location by confirming that the user belongs to the user group.

41. The system of claim 24, wherein the limited location of access locations are accessible by the carrier to deliver one or more packages.

42. The system of claim 24, wherein limited collection of access locations are accessible by the carrier to deliver one or more packages.

43. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

facilitate display of at least a portion of the limited collection of shipping service levels; and

facilitate receipt of a selection of at least one of the limited collection of shipping service levels,

wherein the selected service level identifies a manner in which to transport the package to a delivery location within a predetermined time period.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the display is free from showing service levels, that the user is unauthorized to utilize for shipping the package, the application is further configured upon execution, to

determine unauthorized service levels based on analyzing the information of the at least one right.

45. The system of claim 43, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

validate that the selected shipping service level is one of the limited collection of shipping service levels; and

verify that the user is authorized to utilize the selected shipping service level to ship at least one of the packages based on evaluating the data associated with the at least one right of the user.

46. The system of claim 24, wherein the application is further configured upon execution, to:

determine that the user is only able to utilize at least one of the limited collection of shipping service levels to facilitate delivery of the package to a destination based at least in part on the information of the at least one right.